Education in the U.S.A.

Editorial

Continue the Race

The Obama administration’s Race to the Top initiative has shown that competitive grant programs can be a powerful spur to innovation in education. Most of the 12 states that were awarded grants this year — and the more than 30 states that changed education policies in hopes of winning grants — would never have attempted reform on this scale without the promise of federal help.

The administration secured $4.35 billion for the program in the stimulus package and has requested $1.35 billion for next year. Congress should find the money.

Education Secretary Arne Duncan made clear that the process would favor bold reform plans from states with proven records of improving student performance. The states were required to create data-driven systems for training and evaluating principals and teachers; encourage the establishment of high-quality charter schools; develop plans for turning around failing schools; and demonstrate a strong political consensus for reform.

Critics predicted that the Education Department would cave, and end up financing mediocre programs, once members of Congress turned up the heat. Mr. Duncan held firm. In last spring’s first round, grants were awarded to only two of 41 applicants — Delaware and Tennessee. The second round ended last week, with 10 states sharing the remaining $3.4 billion in the fund. (The grants were prorated based on population.)

New York, which got nearly $700 million, improved its chances by adopting a new teacher evaluation system that takes student test performance into account and an expedited system for firing ineffective teachers. The District of Columbia received $75 million, based partly on its new performance-based teachers contract, an ambitious school turnaround plan and a novel program under which not-for-profits and others from outside the system will operate some struggling schools.

Gov. Chris Christie of New Jersey initially blamed federal grant evaluators for the fact that his state lost out after filing the wrong budget information with its application. (Mr. Christie has fired his education commissioner over the matter.) But there were other equally self-inflicted wounds, including the Christie administration’s failure to build support for the application among unions and local school districts.

Thanks to the application process, even states that did not get grants now have road maps to reform and a better sense of what it will take build better schools.

The New York Times